In the carpeting industry, elastomeric latex foams are frequently used to coat the underside of carpeting to provide a resilient layer, protecting the carpeting from wear and improving the feel and comfort of the carpeting. Widely employed for these purposes are highly-loaded, low density, foamed styrene-butadiene rubber latices. These are ecomonically formulated and applied, but suffer in use from poor compression set properties and a high degree of vulnerability to surface abrasion. Thus, in use and during normal handling, such carpet backings tend to be easily abraded and torn or scuffed on the surface layers, and to wear badly where exposed to roughened or abrading surface. Additionally, these low density foam structures tend to be subject to rapid moisture penetration, exhibiting poor water resistance and a high tendency to retain water when exposed to wet conditions. Although higher density foams may be formulated to overcome some of these deficiencies, the increased density results in higher costs and in decreased resiliency for a given weight.
Highly loaded, low density foams for use in carpet backing applications which have improved strength and surface wear properties without sacrifice in cost and resiliency are clearly needed.